Shielding dendrimers

The ability of a dendritic shell to encapsulate a functional core moiety and to create a specific site-isolated microenvironment capable of affecting the molecular properties has been intensively explored in recent years [19]. A variety of experimental techniques have been employed to evidence the shielding of the core moiety and to ascertain the effect of the dendritic shell [19, 20]. Dendrimers with a fullerene core appear to be appealing candidates to evidence such effects resulting from the presence of the surrounding dendritic branches. Effectively, the lifetime of the first triplet excited state of fullerene derivatives... 

A luminescent unit extensively used to functionalize dendrimers is the so-called dansyl (5-dimethylamino-l-naphthalenesulphonamido group). Dendrimers (up to the third generation, compound 9) containing a single dansyl unit attached off center [39] show that this fluorescent unit, which is very sensitive to environment polarity, is progressively shielded from interaction with water molecules as the dendrimer generation increases. 

The effect of core shielding of a porphyrin moiety by peripheral dendrons has been carefully investigated on two series of Zn-phthalocyanine-cored dendrimers with aryl-ether branches [60]. Generation 0,1, and 2 (dendrimer 27) species, terminated with ester groups, are soluble in organic solvents, while the species terminated with carboxylate units (e.g., 28) are soluble in water. 

Arya et al. used solid phase synthesis to prepare immobilised dendritic catalysts with the rhodium centre in a shielded environment to mimic nature s approach of protecting active sites in a macromolecular environment (e.g. catalytic sites inside enzymes) [51], Two generations PS immobilised rhodium-complexed dendrimers, 6 and the more shielded 7, were synthesised.The PS resin immobilised rhodium-complexed dendrimers were used in the hydroformylation of styrene, p-methoxystyrene, vinyl acetate and vinyl benzoate using a total pressure of 70 bar 1 1 CO/H2 at 45 °C in CH2C12. 

Our choice was the two series of dendritic polymers 5 and 6, depicted in Figure 4, which have all their open-shell centers (or trivalent carbon atoms) sterically shielded by an encapsulation with six bulky chlorine atoms in order to increase their life expectancies and thermal and chemical stabilities. Indeed, it is very well known that the monoradical counterpart of both series of polyradicals, the perchlo-rotriphenyl methyl radical, shows an astonishing thermal and chemical stability for which the term of inert free radical was coined. The series of dendrimer polymers 5 and 6 differ in the nature and multiplicity (or branching) of their central core unit, N, as well as in their branch-juncture multiplicities, N Thus, series 5 has a hyperbranched topology with = 3 and = 4, while dendrimer series 6 has a lower level of branching with = 3 and = 2, and the topology of a three-coordinated Cayley tree. 

In contrast, the diastereoselectivity of the dendritic host increases. This indicates that on shielding of the chiral core unit with sterically more demanding dendrons in higher-generation dendroclefts the monosaccharide guests are no longer bound in the immediate vicinity of the chiral core unit instead, a less specific host/guest interaction takes place with the dendrimer scaffold. 

The above examples clearly demonstrate that dendritic catalysts with catalyti-cally active sites on the periphery represent a superior catalyst concept compared to those with a catalytically active site in the dendrimer core which will be subject to rapidly increasing shielding with increasing dendron size. 

Compared to polymers, dendrimer architectures offer favourable conditions for fixation of catalytically active moieties thanks to their monodispersity, variability, structural regularity of the molecular scaffold, and numerous functionalisation possibilities. Catalytic units can be fixed - multiply if required - on the periphery, in the core of a dendrimer, or at the focal point of a dendron. If the dendrimers are suitably functionalised at the periphery, appropriate metal complexes can be directly attached to the surface of the molecule. In contrast, dendrimers functionalised in the core or at the focal point shield the catalytically active site through their shell structure in a targeted manner, for example to attain substrate selectivity in the case of reactants of different sizes [1]. The corresponding concepts of exodendral and endodendral fixation of catalysts were inttoduced in the context of functionalistion of carbosilane, polyether, and polyester dendrimers [2]. Exodendral fixation refers to attachment of the catalytic units to the... 

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